Talanoa

Clues in the Pacific about famous navigator's death

An uninhabited atoll in the Western Pacific holds the clue on where the world's most famous woman navigator died.

More than 80 years after her plane went down over the Western Pacific, the mystery of where and how pioneer aviator Amelia Earhart disappeared while trying to set a world record, appears over.

Amelia Earhart. Photo/ New Atlas.

Earhart left Papua New Guinea on July 2, 1937, flying over Kiribati and the Marshall Islands towards Hawaii on what would have been the first around-the-world flight by a woman.

Scientists have used updated research on bones and other artefacts to debunk claims she landed and died in the Marshall Islands.

The evidence points to Earhart and her navigator most likely surviving a crash landing near Nukumaroro or Gardner Island in Kiribati, and dying there as castaways after their plane broke up and washed away into the ocean.